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We have found many times over the years that every time we connect with the community, the impact is much greater if we have multiple stakeholders in the mix. In other words, the more the merrier! Our E-Recycling drive this past December with Frontier Communications and Hillsborough County Schools was NO EXCEPTION! The Season of Giving...

The definition of poverty and the “official” metrics used to measure it varies by country. For example in Venezuela, where I was born, the metric is a family’s ability to afford the “basic food basket” and “basic necessity goods” on a monthly basis. Now Venezuelans are told to raise vegetables and rabbits on their roofs...

There is a technology gap between the demographics in our country. It is growing, and it is real, very real. Some experts call it the Digital Divide or Technology Divide, others call it the Device Gap. Put it simply: lower income families have less access to technology and technology devices, and this is adding an...

In 2014, Tony Selvaggio was already a successful young entrepreneur. The native Venezuelan, who had only lived in Tampa since April 2011, had met the girl of his dreams and was over a year into running his own scrap metal business. He started with $8,000, and in three years had surpassed $250,000 in revenues. But...

For Tony Selvaggio business has “always been a search for purpose.” So when he started eSmart Recycling in February 2014 as commercial metal recycling company he found that the industry’s emphasis on price over loyalty left him feeling empty. The company, founded as Scrap On Spot, was quickly profitable but Selvaggio, like many social entrepreneurs...

eSmart Recycling. May, 2018 Every laptop delivery day has a special place in our hearts because it is usually a day that has been in the works for a while. In this occasion, we had the honor and pleasure to partner with the team of Shorecrest Preparatory School for an on-going “Kids helping Kids” E-Recycling program. ...

Tampa Bay startups are well represented at Chase basecamp in downtown Tampa’s District 3 event space. It’s day three of Tampa Bay Startup Week, and energy is still high from the ‘halfway to Social Media Day’ celebration at a lively sports bar on night two. Standout Startups at Startup Week Tampa Bay CitySleekers, a mobile,...

Have you had it recently? I’ve had it a lot. In my personal life mostly. But I never thought it could really happen early in business. Isn’t philanthropy what you do when you hit the 8-figure revenue mark and want to avoid bad press? Then I met Tony Selvaggio and the eSmart Recycling crew. On...

TAMPA,Fla. – Chances are, you or someone in your family, got a shiny new gadget for Christmas–maybe a laptop or tablet. But now, what do you do with your old devices? It turns out there’s a local company ready to turn your trash into treasure for kids around the world. A warehouse full of old...

TAMPA – One of the winners launched a tilapia importing company from Colombia. He called it PezCo. Another winner knew that the future of commercial waste management – call cell phones, computers, televisions, washing machines, sound equipment and microwaves, among others – is in the recycling and was not wrong. A third winner found a...